Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame
by Slipgate
Summary: My submission to the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge. High school reunion's the sitch…  Chapter 2 of 2, story complete.
1. Remembered Fame

**Title: Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame**

**Story Summary: My submission to the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge. High school reunion's the sitch…**

_**Disclaimer: Disney owns **_**Kim Possible**_** (married or otherwise) and related characters. I do not profit on this story and never will.**_

**~*~*KP*~*~**

**Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame**

**by Slipgate**

**Chapter 1**

"Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the first quarter of this game, your Middleton Mad Dogs are in the lead against the Lowerton Lemurs, 14-3, with two touchdowns by star quarterback Theo Jenkins. The visiting Lemurs have only managed a single field goal so far thanks to Mr. Harry Hangin' Chad. What will the rest of the game hold for us?"

Matt Robinson blew warm air into his hands and rubbed them together as he looked out over the stadium from his seat. Sure enough, Coach Flagg was right on the money about this being a promising new set of Mad Dogs, at least so far. Matt hoped the Mad Dogs would win. It's not that he really had that much worry about team preferences, but he'd heard that Coach Flagg was still considered "new" and "untested" at his job, and he thought the big gentle guy deserved some success to help him relax about his job security. He wasn't into the football thing, but Coach Flagg was a pretty cool history teacher. He envied some of the students who did have Flagg as a coach for having an intimacy and familiarity with him beyond the class that Matt just couldn't share in.

As Matt squinted up at the scoreboard, he sighed again. Some of those same classmates were down there right now, with Coach talking to them most likely right now. As cool as Mr. Flagg was, Matt couldn't help but slightly wish he'd made it to Middleton High School a year sooner than he had. Last year had been the old Coach Barkin's final year before he announced his retirement. Matt would've liked to have picked Coach Barkin's brain about the many people who had passed through his tutelage in his thirty years at Middleton High School. Any of those many people would've been cool to learn about, but there were two people in particular that Matt Robinson would love to know more about from the mouth of experience.

As Matt huddled his coat closer, he shivered a little. It was a brisk, chilly October night. The year was 2026.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

The PA suddenly came live again, causing Matt to look up toward the towering speaker structures.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, as we pause before our second quarter, it has come to our attention that we failed to make certain announcements before we started this game. Some may know here that today was the day the Middleton High Class of 2016 celebrated their 10-year reunion. As a final wrap to the day, the class is here in attendance of their old alma mater's game in the Northeast bleacher section. Class of 2016, raise your arms and let the Mad Dogs of today know – 'Once a Mad Dog, always a Mad Dog!'" The mentioned section of the bleachers came alive while many heads swiveled to see them.

The announcer allowed the sound to die down a bit, and then said, "And, in a happy coincidence of scheduling, they're not the only veteran Mad Dogs in the bleachers tonight. Today was also the 20-year reunion of the Middleton High Class of 2006. Class of 2006, let these youngsters know who the real Mad Dogs are!" A portion of the bleachers that wasn't that far from Matt, but was tucked back near the upper wall, came alive with a cacophony of sound.

Matt had at first tuned things out after the announcement of the 2016 reunion. However, his best friend Roger grabbed his shoulder and got his attention. "Dude," Roger said, "did they say the Middleton High Class of 2006 was here?"

Matt turned to Roger. "I… guess," he said, remembering that vaguely since he had stopped paying attention.

"Why does that ring a bell?" Roger asked. "Somehow, that sounds like it should ring a bell for me… maybe something you've said before? Does that ring a bell for you?"

Matt had been very distracted, so he shrugged helplessly. "Dude?" he offered uncertainly with a shrug.

However, suddenly the year permeated his consciousness. "Dude… wait _wait_ wait _wait_ wait! Did you say 2006?" Matt asked, shaking Roger in sudden urgency.

"Yeah, they said the Middleton High class of 2006 was up there," Roger said, pointing at the section as he spoke. "What's up, dude?"

"Roger, that's them!"

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Roger Wilson was a decent guy. But he was out to sea at the wild, excited look in his best friend Matt's eyes. "Them?"

"Yeah, you know… Kim!"

"Oh. OH! Do you think she's really up there?" Roger asked. His best friend was a huge Kim Stoppable and Ron Stoppable fan, in the sense that he admired them and had considered it important to research lots of biographical information about them. Those talks where Roger smiled at Matt's total hero worship came back to him full force.

"I don't know!" Matt replied helplessly. "I mean, I know they live in Upperton now. But you figure they would've gotten the mail for their high school reunion. I heard they stayed pretty close to their roots… they probably would've known the reunion was coming up. They might be up there but I just can't see well enough up that high in the bleachers."

Roger was surprised. "Come on, man, wasn't she a cheerleader? The way I hear it, people used to be able to see her red hair and green eyes from across the gym. You've seen so many pictures of her that I'm sure you'd spot her in the crowd."

Matt deflated immediately. "You know I'm terrible at spotting people in crowds," he mumbled. "In June I couldn't even see my older brother in the crowd for his graduation no matter how many people kept pointing out and saying 'fourth row, third from the left' to me. I just couldn't see him, and I pretty much _never_ caught sight of him during the graduation ceremony. That was my brother, man. You think I'm going to spot the Stoppables from way over here in the freshman bleachers?"

Roger was about to retort that there were no official freshman bleachers, but he and Matt had already had that circular conversation (with Matt saying that these were unofficially where freshmen sat) and he decided not to get distracted.

Matt asked, "Maybe you could look, Roger? I'm never going to see them myself from here."

"Well, dude, have you ever thought about, you know, trying to go see them up there instead of from far away?" Roger replied.

Matt shook his head. "Just because someone's address is on public record doesn't mean it's not creepy as hell to go walking up to their door and knock on it, Roger." Roger nodded. "I'm pretty sure it counts the same for a stranger to walk up to somebody in a football game they were enjoying." Roger pursed his lips as he thought about that one.

"Besides," Matt said, sighing, "who would I walk up to? What am I gonna do, walk up and down the rows until I actually see them?"

"You know, I thought you'd be eager." Roger said after a silence. "As much as you're into all this stuff… digging up old newspaper articles on microfiche and finding things on Google caches and managing to save them off… and with how much you admire them… look, you're not trying to be crazy obsessive psycho stalker fan here.

"You're just trying to say hello in a situation where they might be here. If it ends up looking a little weird… think about it. Why do people go to such lengths to see people they're fans of at conventions and stuff? It's because they care enough that they're willing to look a little weird because it's outweighed by the opportunity to really get to talk to that person they care about. I think you can go say 'Hi' without it being disrespectful or weird. Come on."

At last Matt nodded. "Okay, but can you see them up there. Because you know that I wasn't kidding about my ability to see in crowds. I'll look but can you be looking also?"

**~*~*KP*~*~**

They scanned the Class of 2006 section of the bleachers. The second quarter of the game had recently started but they hadn't been paying attention.

Roger notices something as he scans the Middleton Class of 2006. "Hey, you might be in luck buddy!"

"What's up?"

"It doesn't look like there were that many redheads in the class of 2006. Either that, or at least not that many redheads that kept their hair red after high school."

Matt looks and after raking his eyes across the section of bleachers sees what Roger means. "I see… two redheads, I think?"

"You weren't kidding," Roger said. "There are actually three redheads I spotted. But the third one doesn't have her hair fully red – looks like she may have colored it some after high school. But you know Kim's kept her hair color the same, right?"

Matt nodded. "I've seen a file photo from a recent mission and it was still normal."

Roger replied, "Good enough for me. Anyway, of the other two, one has short-cropped hair. That wouldn't be Kim either, right?"

Matt shook his head and replied, "Nope."

Roger eyed the last candidate. "Well, then we have door number 3 here." Matt was able to see this one, since she was at the edge of a bleacher row and he'd spotted her red hair before. "That could be her," Roger said, nodding his head toward the likely candidate.

Matt looked and said, "I think you're right. The hair seems the right shade and length."

Roger scrutinized her for a moment. "Matt, Ron was… had blond hair, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the guy sitting next to her there has blond hair. That might be him, assuming they managed to find spaces together. Which you know you have to figure unless they came in separately."

Matt looked next to the redhead and saw the short blond hair of head. "No, no, they would've come together to this. And I think that might be Ron."

"Well," Roger said, turning around and massaging a headache from craning his neck and staring upwards, "are you going to go up there and say hi? You certainly admire them enough."

Matt turned around too and nervously fidgeted with his hands. Finally, he stopped his fidgeting and said, "You're right, man. I should go over there. I just hope this isn't weird."

**~*~*KP*~*~**

_**To Be Concluded in Chapter 2**_

_**Author's Notes:**__ Thanks to all who give this entry to the contest a try. I will be posting Chapter 2, the conclusion of this tale, tomorrow. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I always respond to reviews if I'm graced with them._


	2. Reunited Friends

**Title: Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame**

**Story Summary: My submission to the 9/7/10 Writer's Challenge. High school reunion's the sitch…**

_**Disclaimer: Disney owns **_**Kim Possible**_** (married or otherwise) and related characters. I do not profit on this story and never will.**_

**Note:** Due to some subjects discussed or hinted at, I've been obliged to raise the rating to T. It's nothing terrible, but I would proceed mindful of that.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

**Reunited Friends, Remembered Fame**

**by Slipgate**

**Chapter 2**

Ron put an arm around his wife and Kim tightened herself into his embrace. "Kind of funny, how we're back here again," he said.

"So far nobody has approached us other than the friends here. I wonder if anyone will?" Kim replied.

"Well, after the football game, when he isn't busy, I'm going to go talk to Brick and see how he's doing." Ron said. "I can't help but wonder how he would've handled what I did with the battle suit to try to be a quarterback."

Pete Peterson, sitting on the other side of Kim and adjacent to the aisle, laughed. "I hear he asks players to do the crab-walk with the best of them, Ron."

"Well, anyway, it's been a long time since we've seen Brick Flagg. I'm interested in the fact that he's a history teacher too from what I've heard. I'll join you in saying hello to him," Kim said, "after the game, though. I want to see how the cheerleaders perform in the halftime show, and the rest of the time Brick will be busy coaching the game."

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Matt rose from his chair. He turned to the nearest aisle for where he was sitting and proceeded to work on getting himself extricated from the sea of people.

"'Scuse me, pardon me, 'scuse me, 'scuse me…" he said, as he slowly worked himself past legs and bags sitting on the floor. There was one considerable obstacle ahead. "Please sir, let me through here," he asked, and the huge kid shifted back enough that Matt hopscotched between his legs. "Thank you very much sir."

"'Scuse me, pardon me… coming through." He continued as he worked his way out of his bleacher row.

"Hahhhh…" he said at last, "out of my row. That was a hell of a lot harder than it should have been to get out of the freshman bleachers. Now to get up the aisle to the other one." He did a quick check of their position. "Thank God they're sitting near the edge. There's only one guy between Kim and the aisle between the bleachers."

Matt climbed the stairs. As he got closer, he knew for sure that the redhead and blond he'd noticed were the Stoppables. Kim had on a stylish sweater, some warm leggings, and some mittens. He was amused to see that she was practicing the same "blow into the hands" habit he'd used earlier and had followed since his elementary school days at the bus stop during cold weather. Ron was wearing a heavy coat, and he had on a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that didn't seem congruous with the last file photo he'd seen of them. It was unmistakably Ron Stoppable other than the specs, though. Especially when Kim blew into her hands again and caressed one freckled cheek with the less-cold mittened hand, followed by a quick peck on his ear that got a quirk of a smile out of him.

He decided to stop staring and man up a bit. He approached the brown-haired man between the aisle and Kim. "Excuse me?" he asked the man politely.

The man was tall, with brown hair that was starting to turn steely at the temples. The man turned to Matt. "Yes?" he replied.

"Um, could I come through here? I'd really like to talk to them." With the last word, Matt had pointed (as politely as one can point) at the Stoppables.

The man smiled, turned to Kim, and said, "Well, there you go Kim, Ron. Someone just approached you."

Matt's throat closed up. Apparently, this guy knew Kim and Ron personally. _"Why shouldn't he?"_ Matt reminded himself, _"he was apparently in the same class!"_

He managed a breath when Kim turned to him with a smile and said, "Hello!" Matt didn't immediately respond, but something in his expression must have communicated to them. "I'm sorry, but do we know you?" she asked.

"No… no. I'm, uh, they announced recently that folks here were at the 20th high school reunion. The class of 2006?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, that's right." he replied.

"And, well, as my friend helped remind me, there was something familiar about that year to me. And, well, you guys… I'm a big fan. I'm…" Matt's mouth flapped helplessly as he tried to think of what else to say. "I'm a big fan." he repeated finally. _"Calm down, calm down,"_ he told himself.

Something in his expression brought a warm smile to Kim's face. She turned to the man next to her. "Hey Pete, I know we're sitting with some comfortable space between each other on this bleacher. Think you could spare a little space for our big fan to sit next to us?" The man named Pete smiled, rose from the bleacher, and gestured to Kim and Ron, who squeaked themselves closer to whoever was on their other side. Matt was flabbergasted, but "Pete" gently lead him in and sat him down next to him by the shoulders. He then sat again next to Matt on the edge of the bleacher.

Matt took a quick look at who was in the bleacher besides themselves. The person that Kim and Ron had squished themselves closer to on their other side was a dark-skinned woman. Next to that was a tan woman with teal eyes and brown hair. A teen just a little older than him seemed to be sitting next to her. On the boy's opposite side were a tall woman with long blond hair and then a tall lanky man with brown hair that looked like it might've once been lighter. Another kid, a girl, was on the opposite side of the guy and definitely looked related to the last two. The bleacher was kind of a full house, as there was another aisle on the other side of that girl.

"So," Kim brought his attention back to her, "we can chat a bit during the second quarter here, but keep in mind Ron does want to watch the players a bit. I'd say wait for the halftime except that I really want to see how the Middleton High cheerleaders of today are. So, what's your name? You can sit with us and talk with us."

"You're letting me sit with you?"

Ron disregarded the question and instead asked, "So, you were trying to tell us before that you're a big fan. What's your name?"

"Umm… I'm called Matt… I mean, my name's Matthew but… you know, I'm called Matt."

Kim replied, "Hey, I'm cool with that. What people don't often know is that my name is really Kimberly Anne."

"I knew that," Matt mumbled.

There was a giggle from Kim. "Hah, I'm sure you did. But what you don't know is that _Kimberly Anne" _she affected with a disapproving lilt, "is what my mom called me when she was, well, disappointed in me or scolding me or something, so I pretty quickly got to be a fan of just Kim. And you know Ron's name is Ronald."

Ron chimed in, "Yeah, and I don't really have anything against that as such but you know… 'Ron!'" he quipped. "The Ron…" he declared in a suave voice. "Compare that to 'Ronald!' It rolls off the tongue more for me to be just called plain Ron."

Kim turned to him. "I don't know. I'm a pretty big fan of Chef Ronald, especially when I get to kiss the cook…" she cooed coquettishly.

"Kim!" Ron said, blushing. "Not in front of… er, the fan?"

There was a sudden cry of triumph and everyone's heads whipped back to the stadium field. The score was 21-17. "Ouch," Ron said. "What happened?"

The dark-skinned woman sing-songed, "one touchdown for us and two for the Lemurs that you weren't paying attention to."

Ron abruptly rose to his feet "Come on, Mad Dogs! Woof woof woof!" he called out… _very_ loudly. Coach Flagg, on the field, somehow recognized the cadence of the voice as one he'd often heard from the sidelines back in his high school days and tracked his head up to where he saw Ron. (Not everyone's crowd-sight was as bad as Matt Robinson's.) He smiled and flashed a thumbs-up to the old mascot. It also broke the tension he had been feeling. He needed to focus his team against these Lemurs. This was their turf… and it had been his turf, he felt, for a _long_ time. No way would he give that up.

Kim smiled helplessly and said to Matt, "one moment please." She cried out, "Go, Mad Dogs, go go, Mad Dogs!" The brunette with the teal eyes and the tall blond woman took up her chant. "We're number one!" she called out, and somehow, despite a stadium's acoustics, the sound carried. Quickly thereafter, the Mad Dogs began widening the point margin again. Kim sat back with satisfaction and said, "Still got it!"

"It was pretty badical when my girlfriend was cheering for me back in the day," Ron mused.

"She's more than your girlfriend now… and besides, the Big Dog gets to have…" Kim began, but Ron's eyes widened and he shushed Kim, who realized she was starting bedroom talk in public. The entire bleacher row laughed at Kim whose face glowed in embarrassment.

Matt had been the only one not to laugh. His eyes were wide.

Pete decided to give Matt some introductions after he laughed. "Okay, so, Matt, I'm Pete Peterson. I'm a content single man and I'm a documentary filmmaker. You know Kim and Ron. Tall, dark, and beautiful over there is Monique, Kim's best female friend dating back to high school. On the other side is Bonnie, who was on the cheer squad with Kim back in the day, her son Will, who we still call Billy, Tara, Josh, and their daughter Vicky. Vicky's aspiring to eventually be a Middleton High cheerleader herself so she'll probably have her attention glued to the halftime show just as much as Kim will. Felix and Zita aren't with us because they're involved somewhere else here, otherwise they'd be sitting here too."

Ron said, "Thanks for the introductions, man. Totally my bad not to do them already for everyone." Pete and Ron awkwardly leaned over Matt and Kim to fist-bump.

"You know," Ron said, "I know a thing or two about football now, since I played it some back in the day. But when you were cheering for games before we got together, I didn't really know all that much about it. I read up on it in the hopes not to lose you."

Kim sighed and chided him, "You weren't going to _lose_ me!"

Ron replied, "This is all water under the bridge, KP, but you know I didn't know that at the time. Anyway, in its own crazy way, Kim, you know I did make sure I didn't lose you? When you found out about it and you were tweaked, you still didn't leave me then. Considering how majorly wrong that was, and that you didn't leave me, I had a lot more confidence you wouldn't leave me later on over something little after we had that out. You telling me that you were with me as long as I was honest gave me a lot of confidence. I only doubted we'd be together once… maybe twice, after that. When you lost your memory, and when I worried graduation would pull us apart."

"Really?" Kim asked, surprised. She smiled and hugged Ron around the nearest shoulder.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Matt finally spoke up again. "Um, are you guys okay talking like this around me?"

Kim's face fell and she blushed again. "I'm sorry, we're disregarding you."

"No no no. If anything, I think you're doing the opposite. I didn't expect you to be willing to have your personal conversations around me."

Kim gave him a long, level look and finally said, "Matt."

"Yeah?"

"Am I guessing this right, and you're in a situation where you're completely flabbergasted because you idolize one or both of us so much that you're out of sorts even being here talking to us… that you're having trouble figuring out what to say and how to keep your composure?"

"Is it that obvious?" Matt said, with a quavering lip.

Ron offered, "Well, first I have to say that it… it's obvious to us because we've been there ourselves. I mean, back when the Oh Boyz were yesterday's news to Kim, she was still a little tongue-tied and shy when she actually met them face to face. Meanwhile, they were thinking of her help to come save them and were just saying hello in a face-to-face way. She completely didn't know what to say or do. Even though she'd just come through dealing with their aggravating record executive, coming to Senior's island, and fighting a mutant octopus, here's where she suddenly blushed and had no idea what to say… after she came to get me and them free."

Kim said, "Even I was pretty sure I was over them but there was a bit of 'Oh man, it's actually them, and I'm actually talking to them, and seeing them, and… brain meltdown.' I've been there too, Matt."

Ron added, "and lest one think I am criticizing my wife, I remember how tongue-tied I was when I met the wrestler Steel Toe back when he was active. It's not like I behaved in a way that would've had Steel Toe necessarily thinking I was a fan worth talking to either.

You might think otherwise from the fact that Kim does get interviewed sometimes, in connection with some of the missions we've been on, but Kim and I lived our lives when we weren't on missions and still do…"

Kim cut in, "To us it is weird for us that anyone views us the way we've viewed some of our idols… that anyone would feel like talking to us is like what Ron felt like talking to Steel Toe. Sometimes it's easy to forget that _we _are sometimes viewed that way. So believe me, we totally understand how tongue-tied you are right now, and you don't have to worry about it.

I understand you want to talk normally to us but you aren't sure how to. We're also getting a little unused to attention like that. Before you came by we were talking about how nobody had approached us yet today. There've only been a few times when people who are big fans like you have talked to us that way. It's been less often more recently because we've been at it a while and aren't so new or amazing anymore. Also we don't even live in the same town as we originally did and we have professional lives and kids we're dealing with."

Ron added, "There is _some_ peripheral rep our kids get though… people who might say, 'Hey you're Kim Possible's kid!' But these days there are plenty of people who are like, 'Who's Kim Possible?' if someone says that to them now."

"I guess what I'm trying to say," Kim said, "is that it might surprise you but we only sometimes get reactions from big fans who aren't sure how to talk to us. We understand the reaction because we've had it before for other people. Considering how we view ourselves as pretty normal, it's kind of flattering and kind of bizarre to us that anyone views _us_ that way. We see people like that rarely. I have to admit I'm unsure how to handle that. I'm trying to make you more comfortable here…" she paused, then grimaced, "but I notice I keep talking and you're not saying anything."

Matt finally spoke again. "I'm sorry, I just… didn't want to interrupt you when you were talking and just wanted to listen."

"So," Kim began, "tell us about you, Matt."

And so Matt did. The words spilled out. How Matt admired them for helping people. How he'd once looked up a class photo of the Class of 2006, taken near the end of their senior year, and had needed help to find them in the picture. How he hated 'Where's Waldo?' How he'd not seen his brother four years his elder at his high school graduation that June. How he'd actually looked up microfiche to feel like he was seeing the original newspaper articles. How he'd been struck by Kim's warming her hands the same way he did since he was a kid. How his friend Roger Wilson noticed the class of 2006 shout-out, and convinced him it was okay to be a little weird if it meant meeting your heroes. How he had a tape of the Shayla Martin interview from years ago as a digital file, since rarely since had Kim and Ron ever given quite so comprehensive and neutral an interview. He talked to them about how awesome they were… to him. How he'd wondered about both martial arts and learning to cook because his heroes could do these things, but found himself not well-suited to either. And how, finally, he realized just how weird he was seeming and that he knew five years from now this would only be a memory for them both, but that he was thrilled that he got to meet them and that they, at least, behaved normally around him.

It all came spilling out. Afterwards, a wide-eyed Kim and Ron with their jaws hanging open but smiles evident in their eyes gave each other a look, nodded once, and drew him into a group hug with them. Kim kissed him on the cheek and Ron joked in his other ear to treasure it, because she'd only ever given kisses on the cheek to her family and him. Matt Robinson didn't know what else to say. The others around them, as he saw when he opened his eyes again, were smiling broadly.

Just as they were about to disengage, the PA came alive. "And the second quarter ends with the Middleton Mad Dogs leading, 35-17. Coach Flagg seems to have gotten a second wind from some impromptu support from the bleachers. Jenkins got us to 28 and Reyes took us to 35, while Matthews and Corey made sure that the Lemurs didn't get any more points."

The hug disengaged. Kim smiled at Matt and said, "Listen, we really want to pay attention to the halftime, but we can talk a bit more during the third quarter? Unless you're expected back by your friend sooner than that?"

Matt shook his head. "I think Roger understands where I am. And sure, that's fine. I'm sorry I distracted from so much of the game already."

"Pshaw," Ron scoffed. "We were going to buy the video of this game anyway. And I'll be watching that Jenkins."

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Everyone turned face forward for the beginning of the halftime show. As the cheerleaders came out, Kim watched with a smile but also a critical eye. The cheer routine looked pretty awesome to Matt, but he was sure that Kim Possible (_Stoppable_, he mentally reminded himself) might have more discerning eyes than he for such a thing.

"Hmmm," Kim finally said, "the squad is doing well here – this is a good routine. But there are a few people doing side hurdlers at the same time other people are doing herkies."

The woman named as Bonnie chimed in, "I think they're supposed to all be side hurdlers, Kim… it looks like the people doing herkies are trying to lift their other leg up higher than they're managing to."

Kim pursed her lips. "You might be right, Bonnie."

"It's funny, isn't it Kim? Twenty years removed and we both feel we want to go down there and set them right. Whereas I know for sure that when I used to bug you about side hurdlers instead of herkies, it was because I was trying to show off flexibility, and I probably didn't even pull off a side hurdler all the times I planned to do one. We act like we did so much better than them, you know?"

Kim grinned. "Yeah, I know. Actually, I think it was some of your inconsistency that helped contribute to my slave-driver image. After all, the squad had to redo the routines till they looked right to me."

"Kim!" Bonnie said, scandalized.

"It was a different time, Bonnie, for both of us. For one thing, _both_ of us were far more image-conscious then."

"True," Bonnie said with a flip of her hair. "It's not like any of us are still insisting on Club Banana over Smarty Mart, are we K?"

Kim laughed and looked down at an embroidered logo on her sweater. "Touché. Still, I think my hubby doesn't always mind, at least when I model for him."

It was Ron's turn to be scandalized. "Kim!"

Tara commented, "The two of you were something else back then on the squad."

Bonnie smiled. "Don't get me wrong, Kim, but I'm really even gladder that I reconnected with T than with you."

"Of course I can understand that, Bonnie. You two were close." Kim said.

"And here I am, the kind of quiet guy that some of you guys crushed on back in the day, huh, girls?" Josh said, and the eyes of three femme fatales turned on him before they saw the laughing grin on his face at how they'd been played.

Tara smiled and said, "Some of us did more than crush," kissing him on the cheek.

Tara then absently asked, "Does Ron know about your visit to Alexandra's Confessions yet, Kim?"

Ron's eyes grew wide. "Am I in for a treat tonight?" he asked.

"Er, sorry Kim." Tara mumbled guiltily.

"No worries… he won't be worried so much about football the rest of the night, I think." Kim said with a smile. Then Kim leaned in to Ron's cheek, kissed it, and whispered something in his ear that put a warm smile across his face.

"I was _just_ helping Tara's Vicky with her first bra purchase," Kim innocently lied in a whisper.

"That's a surprise, Kim, but sure a different one…" he said with a smile, never figuring he was in for anything less innocent later.

Matt looked at the two of them, not sure what Kim had whispered and _definitely_ not wanting to pry at this point.

Also, the conversation seemed to have gone as far as it would without interrupting the Mad Dog cheerleaders below.

Vicky Mankey said, "Mom, when can you help me practice those herkies and side hurdlers and anything else?"

That got Kim's attention. "Aspiring to be a cheerleader, Vicky?"

"Yeah," Vicky replied. "I asked Mom to help me prepare, since, you know, I figure she has the experience. She's making sure I have the flexibility conditioning and strength training before she wants me to leap or twirl around too much. I just want to get to those moves too before tryouts. I know I'll get better at it when I'm actually working as a cheerleader, but I don't want to go to tryouts not having at least tried the different kinds of moves I'll be asked for."

"No worries," Tara replied. "I wasn't intending to let you fall behind. Is this weekend soon enough for you?"

"Yeah," Vicky nodded, and fell silent again.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

The halftime show ended and the imposed overall silence (_"What silence?"_ Matt wondered) with it.

"Not bad," Kim admitted as she leaned back. "What I mentioned about the jumps is probably my only real gripe."

Matt eyed the kickoff as he asked, "So, Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable, uh, where are your kids? I mean, I see some of your friends' kids here. That's not prying, is it?"

"Nah," Ron said. "Our oldest is 8. The reunion itself wouldn't have been their scene, and we live way up in Upperton. They also wanted us to enjoy this time with our old classmates while they hang with both sets of grandparents for board game night. Vicky was here partly to see the cheerleaders, actually, and Tara picked her up between the reunion and coming back to the game since it isn't a terrible commute for her. As for Billy,"

"Will." Bonnie's son corrected, but with a smile.

"Old habit. As for Will," Ron continued without missing a beat, "he was old enough,"

"And besides," Bonnie cut in, "all of my typical support network is here at the game too. Between leaving a 16-year-old home alone while I have fun and just coming with him, well, you figure you may as well let him have some fun too."

"So, Bonnie," Kim asked, "What was it like seeing Bobby?"

"Seeing Bobby?" Bonnie asked in confusion.

"Bobby Johnson." Ron said, after a moment's hesitation. Bonnie looked at him uncomprehendingly. "Well, he was class of '06 also, wasn't he?"

"He was, I suppose," muttered Bonnie, "but I hadn't even thought about the fact that I might run into him. I guess I lucked out, Kim… I never even thought about the fact that he might be here. But I don't think I ever saw him."

Monique jumped in. "Girls, you know I pitched in to help know where to get things from for this reunion." All nodded. "Well, I can tell you that Bobby Johnson didn't respond to the invitation with an RSVP. So he probably wasn't here, unless he figured he'd crash without being sure there'd be enough food ordered to go around."

Bonnie sighed in relief. "If he didn't respond, that's that I guess."

"Mom and Dad didn't get along after I was born." Will said.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Billy… Will," Bonnie said, quickly correcting herself mid-statement. "That had nothing to do with you. Yeah, we didn't get along, but it had nothing to do with you."

"I know Mom. I just mean that it happened afterwards… I wasn't saying I had anything to do with it."

"Good boy."

Will seemed about to say something, but shook his head and gave up with a smile.

Monique suddenly asked, "Hey, everyone, I just had a flash of memory here. Remember at our five-year reunion, when Tara jokingly asked Kim if she was Mrs. Stoppable yet? And poor Tara here figured the answer would be 'No,' and kind of dropped her jaw when she learned they'd gotten married between sophomore and junior year at college?"

"Hey, we'll tell you now what we told you then." Ron said with a smile. "We didn't want to do it the moment we left to live elsewhere – we didn't want to adapt to married life and living apart from our parents at the same time. _But_ we saw no reason to wait for the arbitrary Bachelor's degrees when we could live and work together at school as a married couple just like we could at jobs."

"That and you wanted your foxy redhead," Bonnie grinned.

Ron sulked but another Kim-kiss on the cheek turned his frown upside down.

As it happened, Matt got to watch the rest of the Mad Dog football game with his heroes. There were laughs, and smiles, and jokes, and Matt finally understood what they meant about viewing themselves as normal people. Logically he'd known that meeting his heroes wouldn't mean that they'd be swinging through a window or researching some monkey legend to deal with some schizo foe, but it was a bit of a growing experience to "see" it for real.

He was still amazed and so pleased to have gotten to spend time with his heroes, and it was a story that he often retold, including telling his eventual kids. He was right in that it didn't mean he'd suddenly become friends with Kim and Ron's circle of friends… he was 14 and they were all around 38 and spread to the four winds, for crying out loud. But Matt was content with what he'd gotten and he would've been flattered to know that they also remembered him years later as a big fan with whom they had been willing just to shoot the breeze.

When the football game ended, all of them went to meet the Coach, and along with him a guy in a fancy hover-chair and a foxy Latino woman. Matt hugged Kim and Ron goodbye and said a quick farewell to everyone else, and then began to wade through bleachers to his friend Roger. Roger was pleasantly amazed at just how friendly his buddy's heroes had been, and was content with Matt making up for ditching him by treating him to Bueno Nacho after the game and regaling him with the story.

_**fin**_

**~*~*KP*~*~**

_**Author's Notes:**__ Thanks to all who give this entry to the contest a try. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I always respond to review if I'm graced with them. Did this pleasantly surprise people or go the way they figured it would?_

_I must confess that Matt's problem with seeing people in crowds is a shared by this author, including the occasional emotional baggage that implies. I included a nod in this to a teacher I'd had in high school who was also a coach. I felt close to this teacher, but I could never have the familiarity with him that the guys who called him 'Coach' did. The idea of Pete Peterson as a filmmaker is inspired by __**waveform**__, and Alexandra's Confessions as a store comes from __**Commander Argus**__. I was inspired to include some actual research about cheerleading and nods to Kim's time as a cheerleader by __**Pinky Jo Curlytail**__. Lastly, I was inspired to write this story by the contest by __**Ghostwriter**__ for which it is an entry._


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